Because You Live
by skylightx
Summary: Casteel Downing is a Muggleborn, she's Head Girl, she lost both parents to a camping accident, she blames herself. But yet she smiles. In her seventh year she finds comfort in the most unlikely person: the Head Boy Draco Malfoy. & teaches him to love agai
1. Chapter 1

**Because You Live**; _A Songfic based on Jesse McCartney's "Because You Live". Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement OST _

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, Hogwarts & friends all belong to J.K Rowling; no copyright infringement intended. Casteel Downing & friends belong to me though. Song "Because You Live" by Jesse McCartney. An OC & Draco Malfoy romance songfic. _This chapter contains "Slipped Away" by Avril Lavinge & "Underneath This Smile" by Hilary Duff. _

**Chapter One- Starting Out at the Rain**

It was raining. It was a rather unusual thing to happen, especially on September 10th, the start of term for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was supposed to teach magic. Now the rain fell in grey sleets, covering the countryside near Platform Nine and Three Quarters, occasionally blowing into the platform by a stray gust of wind. The scarlet Hogwarts Express looked battered, the steam emitting from its spout faint and faded, defeated.

It was raining. Really, it was such a bother. Mothers pulled their children closer to them, drawing the strings of raincoats around them, some with their wands some with trembling fingers. She wished she was them, those children. Fathers looked dismayed at their pipes and cigarettes that refused to light because of the wind, giving up and casting "Flagerate" on these contraptions instead. She wish she had him, she wished he was there.

It was raining. Casteel Downing really didn't like it when it happened, it was so terribly dampening, so horribly unhappy. All this on the first day of her Seventh and final year at Hogwarts too. As Head Girl. Besides, it reminded her, the rain; everytime it came she wanted to cry, to stand out there and shout their names. And she promised she would smile. Casteel was furious at herself, for the part that was crumbling and the part that had already fallen into ruin.

_I miss you_

_Miss you so bad _

_I don't forget you_

_Oh it's so sad _

It was raining. Eight years ago, it was raining. It wasn't this precise date on September 10th, but before that, February 10th. It was raining hard, in sleets, and her parents had taken her camping. They were atop a cliff, intending to watch the sunrise. But it was raining, and they were doubtful they would get to see it. Casteel had wondered out with her raincoat, a percocious nine-year-old, splashing at the puddles with a plastic boot. She saw a grass flower, its head bent by the incoming pellets of raindrops, bent away from the oncoming wind. It was near the edge of the cliff.

It was raining. She couldn't see properly so she got down on all fours, like a dog and felt her way to the flower, intending to chivalorously rescue it. It was then she slipped, left hanging by a tree branch in the side of the cliff. She had called out, and they had come, both of them, running. Her mother gasped, her father leaning over the side and grasping her hand.

It was raining. This made tying the figure of eight knots on the harness harder, her mother hastened and fastened it around his waist. He repelled down a distance until he reached her pulling her up and signalling to her mother to reel in the "catch". It was then the poorly tied knots slipped, and they were both fell. Her mother grabbed the end of the rope and held on. But the combined weight of the both of them sent her reeling over the edge, freefalling into the darkness.

It was raining. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished she had wings.

It was raining. Inbetween the sleets of grey they appeared, her wings. Casteel cried out, for that was when she discovered she had magic powers.

It was raining. It was useful too, between her tears as her feet touched the ground at the top of the hill. They washed her tears away, but did nothing for the pain. Her parents had no such luck. They both lay, broken, limbs entangled, at the foot of the cliff. A pool of blood around their heads and back. Like a halo, a deathly, ghostly, dark halo.

_Now you're gone  
There you go  
Somewhere I can't bring you back  
Now you're gone  
There you go  
Somewhere you're not coming back_

It was raining. A whisper that came softly, a whisper uttered from her small rosebud lips. "Goodbye."

It was all her fault.

A Gryffindor prefect, a sixth-year brunette by the name of Phyllis Brown and a seventh-year blonde by the name Elise Smith approached her, both fingering their prefect badges, eyes wide open in awe at the Head Girl.

"Hullo, are you the new Head Girl?" Elise asked, smiling brightly.

Casteel snapped out of her reverie, hastily pulling a smile onto her face and "looking happy". "I suppose so, you're Gryffindors right? Phyllis and...Elise?"

The girls nodded, excited that she remembered them. "It's great we have a Gryffindor Head Girl this year, Ravenclaw's been getting it one too many times. You have to be an awesome person." they gushed in unison.

Casteel smiled sheepishly, a faint pink tinge touching her cheeks.

"Well, well, looks like the Head Girl already has a few fans." a cool voice drawled from behind her. Casteel turned around, eyebrowns raised at the platinum blonde that looked at her with a rather large amount of distatste.

"A Mudblood too, it just shows how much more senile Dumbledore's getting." his sacarstic tones were accompanied with a sardonic smile.

Casteel decided she didn't like the new Head Boy, but she smiled anyway, plastic and fake, speaking in a voice dripping with poisonous sweetness.

"Oh yes, I'm nothing compared to you Malfoy, as you Purebloods put it." she rolled her eyes sacarstically.

"Well Downing, I'm glad you admit it, really, Dumbledore's a blinking idiot to pick you."

Casteel positively glowered. "It's the first day of term and I can totally tell you're going to be a sardonic jerk."

Draco appeared unfazed. "Why, me too! It's the first day of term and I can totally tell you're going to be a sacarstic bitch!" Elise and Phyllis looked at him and giggled, blushing a little.

Casteel rolled her eyes. Again. Typical. She made a gagging movement when Draco proceeded to wink at them suggestively.

"I didn't know you hit on Gryffindors."

"I'm not hitting on them, I'm making them think so."

"You're a jerk."

Draco smirked. "I know."

They clambered on the scarlet express, neither of them looking at the other, and headed off to look for their friends and their respective cabins.

Casteel smiled at Grace Leah and sat down, instantly unfurling a brownie she had hidden in her backpack. "I'm starving."

Grace looked rather envious. "I bet those taste way better than my mom's sandwiches."

There was something about her tone that was missing, something about her gaze that hid something else. Casteel could totally tell, they weren't best friends for nothing.

"What is it, spit it out. And I don't mean the sandwiches."

Grace turned her eyes to the floor, sheepishly.

"W-elll..." she did not look up. "Promise me you won't berate me for being a complete idiot."

"I promise."

Grace cleared her throat. "I'm jealous, of...you being Head Girl. Having delicious Draco Malfoy all to yourself for the rest of the year! I mean think about it, he's nearly the hottest guy in the whole school!"

Casteel nearly choked on the brownie, looking at her incredulously like she was a Nargle. "Are-you-positively-mental?" she said it in one breath, glaring at her friend. "Hot and a total jerk!"

Grace raised her eyebrowns at that. "But he's really sweet and totally charismatic! Like girls swoon over him when he walks past, seriously."

"Hello, that's what made his swollen blonde head so big. He's outrageously arrogant, and he called me a 'bitch' and a 'Mudblood'!"

Grace took a bite of her sandwich. "Well I guess that isn't very nice. It's infact, rather...rather...mean."

Casteel smiled, satisfied. _She'll get over it. _

It was only when she looked out of the window, saw that little girl, that she fell silent.

She looked like a first-year, her mother plaiting her hair that had come lose and whispering into her ear, making her burst out into giggles. She straigtened her uniform and gave her mother a peck on the cheek, hurriedly lugging her trunk up the platform.

Just like what _her _mother used to do.

Casteel was falling apart again and she was still smiling.

_Underneath this smile  
My world is slowly caving in  
All the while  
I'm hanging on  
Instead of letting go_

_  
_It was raining, it was still raining. It was raining, it seemed like that was all it was, it always rained, for her anyway.

They washed her tears away, but did nothing for the pain.

_I miss you. _

END CHAPTER ONE

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	2. Chapter 2

**Because You Live**; _A Songfic based on Jesse McCartney's "Because You Live". Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement OST _

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, Hogwarts & friends all belong to J.K Rowling; no copyright infringement intended. Casteel Downing & friends belong to me though. Song "Because You Live" by Jesse McCartney. An OC & Draco Malfoy romance songfic. _This chapter contains "Faraway" by Nickelback. _

**Chapter Two- With a Heavy Heart**

The train rolled to a sudden stop. Casteel looked up, pressed her nose against the cool window pane. _It wasn't Dementors. _

Merely a broken bridge. The bridge was broken right in the middle of the tracks.

"Alright all, we won't be able to levitate the whole train down with all of you in it, the magic weighs too much. You guys can get out first, and we'll use the rope bridge while we conductors and staff levitate the train to the opposite bank." the conductor said in a magically enhanced voice, resonating across the cabins. Whispers spread like wildfire.

"There's a rope bridge?" Casteel turned from the window to look quizzically at Grace, but she was already trembling.

"Y-yes. I-it's old and rickety and over the rushing r-river..." Grace was horrified.

She was about to lecture her friend on being brave, when an announcement just for her boomed over the carraiges. "Will Downing come out to the bridge, we have to make people line up and cross the damned thing. Hurry up, I'm freezing and you take forever."

_That asshole. _

She gave Grace quick hug before running out the sliding door and making for the main exit.

"Malfoy." she glared at him coldly.

"Downing." he was again, irritatingly calm as he motioned to the crowd waiting at the bridge, for instructions. "We have to line them up and get them across."

"The whole school takes the train, and there's at least four hundred of us, we'll take forever." Casteel whimpered in dismay as she recast her water-repelling charms.

"That's why you have to shut up and hurry up, before we freeze or before I kick you in the river for being a pain in the ass."

_That asshole. _

"Slowly now, hold on to the ropes and walk quickly, you'll be fine." she'd repeated that sentence to frightened girls and First-Years nearly fifty times now, each time with a warm smile pasted on her face, easing them on. She wondered if she should just adopt Draco's approach and silently shove them on the bridge, threatening to rock it if they didn't walk faster.

It wasn't long before they'd cleared the students, and it was only left with both of them to cross.

Draco graciously let her go first. She declined, tauntingly. He shrugged, and started on the bridge, calling for her to hurry up, tauntingly.

Casteel put a foot on the bridge and was about to run across to catch up with that pain in the ass that was the Head Boy before she realized she had looked down.

_Uh-oh. _

Her throat had gone very, very dry, her limbs trembling, her heart hammering with adrenalin. _You have got to be kidding me. _

The sensation of falling, the cliff, the river below. Her parents. Their bodies. The blood. Falling, everything falling. Crashing. Falling. Darkness. Blood. Falling.

She felt herself falling to her knees when a pair of strong arms caught her gently and held her rigid. There was only one person who could do that at the moment, but she didn't care if it was him.

"Don't look down. Walk, I'll hold you. Don't look down, you'll be okay."

His voice sounded so different. It was a few degrees warmer. He held her.

_So keep breathing  
'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore  
Believe it  
Hold on to me and, never let me go_

"It's okay." he repeated, his voice warm.

She felt her feet touch the ground, and crumpled to her knees in relief. Crumpled into his embrace, sobbing.

"I'm...sorry..."

"It's okay." he held her tighter.

It wasn't just him he was apologizing to. But he held her, and he didn't let her go, letting her tears fall into his robes.

She was only a Mudblood. Draco wondered why he cared, why he never wanted to let go of her, just like that, forever.

They were late. Walking up to the castle both of them seemed like they had before, neither saying a word to the other. The facts were these.

Casteel was pretty much grateful to him for everything, but she still thought he was a complete arrogant jerk, however he was also quite civilised, so now they were acquaintances, not enemies, not friends, acquaintances.

Draco was pretty puzzled as to why he cared enough to hold her for a full ten minutes before she looked up, wiped her tears away and started toward the bus, saying only a mere "thank you". He wondered why he expected more. No, why he wanted more. But yet, they were acquainted now, at the very least. He had the rest of the year to find out.

The Great Hall looked awesome, as usual. Casteel searched the Gryffindor table for her friend and found her seated right at the end, pouting, stirring her soup restlessly.

"Hey," Casteel pulled up a chair opposite her and helped herself to some Shepherd's Pie.

Grace didn't reply. She looked up to meet her eyes. Her angry, furious, irritated eyes.

"You lied." that was all she said, simply, coldly and totally unreasonably.

"What?"

"You lied. You lied about hating Malfoy, and then you hugged him in the rain!"

"I-I w-what?" Casteel almost fell off the chair.

"After the bridge, I saw him helping you across, then you collapsed into his arms!" her gaze was unrelenting.

"It was only because I was really afraid of the bridge and everything he helped me across! That's all! I mean come'on, did you think a Pureblood like him would like a Mud-Muggleborn like me?"

Grace paused. "Well you do make sense." A smile crept onto her lips. "He's always been talking about how disgusting Muggleborns are and how much he hates them... I suppose he couldn't have liked you. I've heard Blaise talking and he prefers Purebloods, blondes, quieter girls like me."

"You're totally right." Casteel smiled back.

She wondered why a part of her hoped what Grace said wasn't true.

It weighed upon her heart, and made it heavy again.

END CHAPTER TWO

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